Rich Wilkerson Thinks Kanye has Helped Non-Believers Discover God Through ‘Sandcastle Kings’ Cover

Well-known pastor, Rich Wilkerson Jr., took some time out of his busy day to talk to us about his new book Sandcastle Kings, and the relationship he has with Kanye West.

Pastor Wilkerson is a man-of-God who is seen on TV through his reality show, “Rich in Faith,” and is also known for being Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s spiritual advisor.

However, Wilkerson can not speak on the motives or the actions of West but assures us “he’s on a journey” and someone who “loves Jesus.”

The Pastor recently released his first book, Sandcastle Kings, on November 10, 2015. The cover was designed by Kanye, and this is something Wilkerson considered strategic in reaching a wide audience.

“I think the content of the book is what I believe to be life changing. It’s the greatest message in the world, the gospel. It’s Christ’s message and we’re just carriers of it because the content is so rich, I want to make sure the cover had some sort of pull in,” said Wilkerson. “I wanted it to be great, and I just feel like the church throughout history has always called upon the world’s greatest artists in their time period whether they were believers, non-believers, whether or not they always agreed with their message or not.”

This is where he felt Kanye was a great fit to contribute. His artistic influence in 2016 can make an impact on people regardless of what they believe.

“Whether you like him, love him, hate him…it wasn’t about endorsing his lifestyle. He’s a very influential artist,” he said. “He actually happens to be someone who does love Jesus, and I said, ‘Man, would you design the cover of the book?’”

The minister continued, “I always kind of say that the cover’s really cool but the content is life changing. I wanted to make a cover that people who may never consider reading a book about Jesus, that maybe they would because Kanye did the artwork for the book. I just thought it was a fun idea and I think there’s been a lot of people who have picked it up because of that.”

Wilkerson said that so far they have received “great reports and really great testimonies.” He feels Jesus is the most compelling message in the world because He changes us from the inside out.

“I just think as we’re talking, that’s my message. I can’t speak for other people and I can’t speak for other people’s intentions. From actions, I can speak from my own and I can speak for what Jesus wants to do in people’s lives. I want to stay in the conversation with people,” he said.

The premise of the book is based out of Luke chapter 7, and the parables and stories Jesus shares.

“I think that society now tends to build sandcastles and call ourselves kings but we all know that at some point the tide is going to rise, the rain’s going to fall, or the football is going to be thrown, or a two-year-old is going to step and the sandcastle is going to collapse.”

He then explained the parable of the wise man who built his home on the rock and the foolish man who built his house on the sand. When the storm came, the wise man’s house stood strong. The foolish man’s house crumbled to the ground.

“If there’s something we can observe from the story is that both the wise man and the foolish man both had to face the storm,” Wilkerson said. “And money doesn’t prevent storms, being a Christian doesn’t always prevent storms. We can’t always prevent storms but we can always prepare for them by making sure we have a good foundation. Lot’s of times, things that we build our life on, in and of itself, they seem like good things but a good thing becomes a bad thing when it’s a foundational thing.”

In the book, he tries to reveal that Jesus is the only thing worth building your life on. He does this by breaking down four common castles in our lives.

The first castle is the lies we tell ourselves and our failures. The second sandcastle is our trust in other people whether spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, mom, dad, kids, boss, pastor. “We tend to think people can complete us or satisfy us. People who can’t complete us only compliment us. Only Jesus can satisfy us, only Jesus completes.”

The third castle is religion. He said it picks apart the notion of, ‘If I do enough good things God will owe me’ and ‘If I do enough bad things, will God reject me?’

“The reality of it is, Jesus didn’t come to institute a religion, He came to establish a relationship, a relationship in which we have to trust him in the good, the bad, and the ugly. A lot of people build sandcastles and there are different times when we do that.”

The fourth castle is the sandcastle of the world – “the flesh.” This includes immediate gratification and wanting things right now.

“Sometimes the church just tends to talk about just that one sandcastle, but I think there are three or four of them that are just as detrimental. They all lead to a house collapsing. They all lead to destruction,” he said.

Pastor Wilkerson knows what it is like to be on a platform. When asked about the advice he’d give to people of influence who are searching for Christ out among the world, he said:

“I think following Jesus comes with a cost for sure. Christ says to pick up your cross and follow me and I think sometimes we get too fixated on what we have to let go, what we have to quit, what we have to stop, what temptation is ruling us, and get more focused on what it is that we are picking up in Jesus,” he said. “That which I pick up, dictates what I let go of. So as I pick up my cross every day to follow Jesus that’s going to eventually lead me to Him.”

He feels this struggle is the same for everybody. Wilkerson said when you follow Jesus, remember to not live according to convenience, but according to conviction.

“His word illuminates our path and we have to decide who we want to be,” he shared. “I think Christ has called us to impact culture, but it’s really hard to impact something if you don’t actually carry light or you don’t actually carry salt. Conforming to this world is obviously a temptation for so many people. But the way that we really transform this world is that we offer our body each day as a living sacrifice.”

He continued, “We just need messengers who understand it’s not about them, it’s actually about the message.”

The pastor want’s it to be known that he is not any more special than other people. The message he is trying to convey has been around for roughly 2,000 years. He doesn’t believe a Christian should be afraid to engage the world and love people on their journey to God.

He believes we can’t be afraid to engage the world, and we can’t be afraid to love on people that are on the journey.

“I don’t see people as projects. Projects have a start date and a finish date, but people are eternal beings,” he said. “What part of the journey do I get to become a part of?”

He said everyone wants to be Paul in Acts chapter 9 and come to Christ through a “light from heaven.” However, he said very few people want to be Stephen, who was martyred in part by Saul (Paul).

“Stephen probably played a massive role in the conversion. It might have been the first seed that was planted that day as Saul was able to see Stephen with fire in his bones being the true gospel right there in front of the Sanhedrin.”

Rich Wilkerson’s book Sandcastle Kings can be purchased at here.

Justin Sarachik
Justin Sarachik
Justin is the Editor-in-Chief of Rapzilla.com. He has been a journalist for over a decade and has written or edited for Relevant, Christian Post, BREATHEcast, CCM, Broken Records Magazine, & more. He's written over 10,000 articles, done over 1,000 interviews, and is in post-production for documentaries on Danny "D-Boy" Rodriguez & Mario "Machete" Perez. He's the project manager of the upcoming video game Run the Court and of the media brand Crimefaces. Justin likes to work with indie artists to develop their brands & marketing strategies. Catch him interviewing artists on Survival of the Artist Podcast & creating videos on his social media channels.
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